Passing Through
by Starath
Summary: The wolves visit a sad girl while just passing through. Every bit of this is true, except for the wolves.


**Passing Through**

By Starath

After crawling under the large metal gate, Casey rubbed gravel from her hands and dirt from her shirt. Her tennis shoes crunched on the rocky path as she walked down the well-worn trail around the domed storage buildings and past a tall silo. Ahead of her lay a vast field of soybeans lined by trees on two sides. Casey paused, looking across the soybean field that stretched past the horizon, then continued to a certain spot beside the storage building and touched her heels to the wall.

Sixteen paces. It was exactly sixteen paces to a place right in front of the soybean field, where the ground had recently been disturbed. Weeds thickly covered the area, but Casey found what she was looking for and sat down beside it, hugging her knees to her chin. The sun had started to set, but the five stones laid in the shape of a cross and the remains of long-gone flowers could still be seen in the fading light. Casey touched the stones reverently, water brimming in her eyes. She sniffed, trying to hold back, but she started to cry anyway.

It had been little more than a year ago since Daisy; Casey's faithful dog had died.

She didn't know how long she sat there and cried. The sky grew dark and the first few stars started to shine as the full moon began rising from the east. Clouds drifting overhead became a pallet of pinks, oranges, reds and blues as the sun dipped lower from the sky. The birds suddenly became strangely quiet, halting their evening songs. Casey heard a low whimper. Startled, she glanced up to see a beautiful red dog… no, wolf, sitting on his haunches, looking at her with head tilted and ears pricked forward in curiosity. Casey sniffled, quickly wiping her nose on her shirt, ashamed of being caught while crying.

"Hello," she called softly.

The red wolf gazed at Casey a moment more, then got up and trotted towards her. He sat down in front of her and whimpered again, licking a tear from her cheek. She drew back with surprise, tentatively reaching out to touch the wolf. He lowered his head, allowing her to scratch behind his ears. Tears came unbidden again, and she wrapped her arms around his neck as they started to fall.

"It's been so long…. So long since I've felt fur beneath my hands," she sobbed, "My little girl is gone. All gone. But you can't just let someone go that you've known since you were four; can you blame me for still mourning? For twelve years she was with me. She was the sweetest thing in the world, never harsh or mean, ever. She was my little girl. My little girl. But she's all gone…. She lived a good long life though, sixteen years. Now all I have left are memories and these five stones to mark her place. But what if the farmer comes to plow this part of the field? Then what? I won't have anything to hold on to then!"

The red wolf didn't move until Casey pulled back, rubbing at wet eyes as she looked at the darkening sky and rising moon.

"It's getting late, I should go," she whispered, then regarded him silently as she looked into his intelligent yellow eyes. She hugged his neck again.

"Thank you."

He tilted his head, then licked her face in reply. Laughing, Casey stood up. The red wolf stood too, wagging his tail. She scratched behind his ear.

"Stay safe."

She turned to walk by the storage building, then stopped. Three other wolves, a grey, tan and white watched her warily from the shadows, backing up into defensive postures as she drew near. The grey wolf growled in warning, crouching down further with ears laid flat against his head. Casey took a step back, her voice trembling.

"I'm… I'm sorry you guys, I won't hurt you… I just have to get to the gate behind you."

As if understanding, the white wolf snarled at the grey, who snarled back, but stopped growling. They kept an eye on Casey as she walked by them with wide berth before she ran down the path, scrambled beneath the gate and disappeared across the street.

Tsume stepped out of the shadow of the building and glared at the young boy in front of him.

"Dammit Toboe, why'd you have to go and do that?"

Toboe stared at the ground, lowering his head. "I just wanted to comfort her, you know…"

Tsume leaned on the wall of the building, sniffing with disgust. "Whatever."

"You should have kept following us, we could have just passed through without her knowing," scolded Kiba, "We didn't have time for that."

"Well, you guys didn't have to wait for me…" Toboe said quietly, talking to the ground.

"We're in strange territory; we couldn't have just LEFT you, with all these humans around here," continued Kiba, starting to pace in anger.

"She wouldn't have hurt me, and besides, nobody should ever cry alone…"

"But you didn't KNOW that!" Kiba snapped, "And we just wasted time!"

"Aw, lay off him Kiba," Hige said as he flopped down into the grass, "He didn't cause harm, and neither did the girl."

"Yeah, but your tail always wags where there's a girl around…" Tsume drawled.

"HEY!" Hige sat up to throw grass at him. "I do NOT!" He huffed before lying back down, pulling on his collar, "Besides, she wasn't even cute."

Tsume rolled his eyes. "Oh, of course."

Silence fell as the full moon continued to rise over the horizon and into the night sky, dotted with clouds. The wolves bathed peacefully in its warmth, letting it soothe them. Finally, Kiba stopped pacing, his frustration washed away by the moon.

"Let's get moving. We've been here long enough."

Sighing, Hige got up hesitantly from the soft grass, rubbing his head. "Yeah yeah, onwards to Paradise…."

Tsume pushed himself away from the wall, stretching. "Wherever that is…"

"We'll find it. You'll see," Kiba reassured them, then turned to the boy sitting near the soybean field amongst the long weeds. "C'mon Toboe, we have to go."

Looking from the ground to Kiba, he stood up and said, "Could we…? Please? For her. 'Cause, I mean, she loved her dog so much and all…." He gathered up his courage. "I'll do it alone if you guys won't!"

A long moment passed until Kiba nodded slowly.

"Alright."

Toboe barked happily and sat back down next to the stone cross, and tilted his head back to the moon as the three others joined him.

Four voices chorused together before disappearing into the night.


End file.
